investment - steepest fall for manufacture
WORKERS, SEPTEMBER 2003 ISSUE
In August 2003, investment collapsed to its lowest level since early 1998. Manufacturing investment fell by an astounding 10.1%, the steepest drop since records began in 1994. This failure wrecks the prospects for future growth. Low interest rates have brought not more investment, but only ever rising levels of household debt (£880 billion - £15,000 per man, woman and child, July 2003 figures) and of public sector debt.
The grim news followed revised figures from the Office of National Statistics showing that last year's trade deficit was much bigger than previously thought, at a record £46.3 billion. The deficit with the EU was £20.8 billion.
Other figures show that 13,000 manufacturing jobs are destroyed every month. At this rate, all four million manufacturing jobs, our entire manufacturing industry, would be gone by 2028.